Abstract
Despite the growing literature examining self-employed women, little is known about how self-employed women divide their time between work and other life activities. The flexibility afforded by self-employment is often regarded as a way to better balance work and home activities. Yet studies outside the economics literature seem to indicate that self-employed women do not necessarily experience more family satisfaction. A source of the difference might be that the econometric studies use older data or focus on an older cohort that views gender roles differently. This study uses recently available American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data for 2003 to 2006 to compare the daily activities of self-employed women with those of self employed men and wage and salary workers of both genders. Specifically, it examines whether differences exist in time-use patterns between genders and across employment sectors, and whether these differences are consistent with the hypothesis that women select self-employment for family and lifestyle reasons.
